IthacaLit

Sleight with Homage to LinenWithout ransack a theft can go undetectedfor months even years may pass before

trained eyes miss the heirloom watch hands(arms, really) frozen at the moment it was lifted

(taken from the bureau where it was to be for life)

Without its shadow Doubt will walk awayat noon (which feels a lot like midnight to the victim)

The other day I laid eyes on a Venn of vulturesand the concept of subset made fearsome sense.

Never too old to hang a mobile above the bed.Mine will be a tangle of tanagers snickering

like teenagers until the batteries expire.

Principle Trainer

One moreround of con promotes the ringleader’s mind

set to anothergroup of expert gripers tame

as doves vooing and dooingvendorsof the ladder arts

swinging stiff jointedin the cardboard space string

strong signal from the towerto the motherboardwhy not dispense with

the games altogether letall the small gods goadeach other into thinking

they are all One

(repeat)

K. Alma Peterson is the author of Was There No Interlude When Light Sprawled the Fen, Blaze Vox Books, 2010. Her poems have appeared widely in print and online journals. She is a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, and lives in MN and FL.